By TREY HICKMAN/For the Reporter

MONTEVALLO — At least on paper, the Montevallo Bulldogs varsity boys basketball team couldn’t have faced a tougher fellow Class 3A opponent than Midfield.

The Patriots (16-6, 7-0 in Area 8) strolled onto Montevallo’s home court Jan. 15 boasting the Alabama Sports Writer Association’s No. 1 ranking in the two teams’ respective classification. And thanks in part to Aaron Gaines’ game-high 24 points and Alvin Murry’s 18, Midfield exited with a 76-43 win over its Area 8 adversary.

The Bulldogs (7-12, 2-4) received a bad omen early on as Midfield open the game on a 9-0 run. However, behind six of Bobby Anderson’s team-leading 11 points, Montevallo fought back to make it an 18-16 Patriot advantage heading into the second period.

Murry’s nine points powered the Patriots’ output as Midfield authored a different story in the second quarter, pulling ahead by 17 as the game hit intermission. Despite the effort of Tae’ Smith — who scored all 10 of his points after the break — the complexion of the contest didn’t improve for Montevallo in the second half as the Patriots took the one-sided victory.

“They’re very good,” said Montevallo head coach Greg Dickinson. “Just a lot of shots that we normally make just wouldn’t fall. It was there, just couldn’t fall in the ocean tonight.

“But I think overall, despite how the score was at the end, we did pretty good. We did very good actually because they’re a great team.”

Bobby Anderson led the way for Montevallo with 11 points and 15 rebounds, followed by Antoine Cunningham’s stat line of six points, three assists, eight rebounds and two steals. Smith recorded his 10 points in the losing cause.

Midfield’s Jermaine Turner complemented Gaines and Murry with 15 points.